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After the rest, the party returned to the location of the last fight, where they go through a door on the east side of the room. As Ilanor entered, he was immediately assaulted by a vampire, who managed to bite him by surprise. He reacted quickly however, and delivered a powerful strike. Immediately, Felor and Chari followed up, severely wounding the vampire.

Seline inspired the party, simultaneously discouraging the vampire. The vampire again bit Ilanor, and this time got him in her grasp. Sir Ludwig attempted to break him free, and after a brief struggle, Ilanor managed to do so. Felor delivered yet another hit and healed Ilanor, and Chari landed a second trick shot. Seline viciously mocked the vampire’s looks, which hurt her enough to fumble her attempts to attack Sir Ludwig, who answered with two strong strikes of his own, followed up by another from Ilanor and a last attack by Felor which was enough to permanently put her down.

As the party explored the room, Seline noticed a loose stone, and Chari inspected it closer, finding no hidden traps or anything like it. As he moved the stone, a portion of the wall disappeared, and a set of stairs appeared beyond it. After brief deliberation, they decided to carefully head inside, checking for traps on the way. After a while, the corridor turned right, and a new set of stairs appeared – again going up. Up those stairs seemed to be a dead end – the irony – but Chari noticed another loose stone similar to the last one. Sir Ludwig stepped forward and activated it. Again, the wall turned away, revealing at least one wight in the next room.

Chari attempted yet another trick shot, but missed the creature this time around. Two arrows shot out from the darkness in return, but both missed Sir Ludwig. Seline inspired Ilanor and Felor with heroism, strengthening their body and mind. Two more arrows shot out from the dark, and one clipped Ilanor’s shoulder. Felor called down a radiant flame on the wight, and then conjured his Dolphin Hammer, but missed the wight as it moved forward and attempted to strike Sir Ludwig, but he blocked the strike with his shield. Ilanor charged forward and absolutely botched his attacks, but Sir Ludwig got a strong hit in, blessed with holy energy.

Chari shot the wight with another arrow, while Ilanor dodged two of his own, and Seline once again inspired the party with her beautiful voice, as Ilanor caught yet another arrow in his leg. Felor immediately healed the wound, however, while his hammer took down the first wight. Ilanor and Sir Ludwig charged forward and delivered several hits to the other wights. Chari snuck up the rest of the stairs and shot an arrow through the torso of the wight fighting Ilanor. Sir Ludwig’s wight attempted to drain his life and strike him with his long sword, but his holy powers absorbed part of the damage.

Felor charged forward and killed the wight tangling with Ilanor, who then went after the other wight and delivered another strike – though hopelessly fumbling his first – after which Sir Ludwig landed two very strong blows, killing this wight too.

With the opponents dead, they moved into the next hallway, at the east of the room but heading south. As they moved through the corridor, Felor triggered a trap, and a huge boulder dropped from the ceiling and started rolling through the corridor. Immediately, the party started running, and managed to move to the side when the hallway widened, standing next to the pit Ilanor had previously found while the boulder rolled by and crashed into a wall.

Carefully, the party followed in the boulder’s path, then turned west at the end of the corridor. Suddenly, the wisp that had ran away earlier appeared, lashing out at Felor, who was in front. Seline reacted quickly, mocking the wisp. It didn’t seem to care, however. Again, the wisp lashed out, but Felor rebuked the strike and forced it away. Sir Ludwig charged in and speared it in one strike.

The party entered the next room, and as Ilanor checked out the room, he noticed two vampires hiding against the roof. Immediately, he alerted the others and moved to one of the vampires, waiting for her to descend upon them. Chari, possessing a ranged weapon, simply shot the vampire she could see, as did Felor with a powerful guiding bolt. The other vampire, which Ilanor had been camping, jumped down and promptly took two strong hits, but then she lashed back into him with a powerful bite herself, wounding him further.

The other vampire also moved down and started clawing away at Sir Ludwig, who promptly returned with two powerful cuts. Seline once again imbued Ilanor with heroism, upon which he flayed his sword so wildly he almost cut off his own foot (and then proceeded to break down crying). Chari once again shot a strong arrow, and Felor hit a second guiding bolt, meanwhile healing Ilanor – who once again needed it. The vampire Ilanor was fighting grappled him, and the other vampire grappled Sir Ludwig, who fruitlessly attempted to break free. Seline then attempted to bane the vampires, and succeeded with one of them, while distracting the other enough for Ilanor to break free from her deadly embrace.

Chari once again slipped out of her hiding spot, and took down the other vampire as Felor completely missed his next guiding bolt. The vampire once again trapped Ilanor and took yet another bite. Sir Ludwig and Seline together managed to break free Ilanor, who delivered two more strikes on the vampire, aided by another arrow from Chari. Felor charged forward, but didn’t manage to hit the vampire, who once again struck Ilanor, who then fell unconscious while once again in her embrace. Sir Ludwig once again struck the vampire and finally killed her.

With the fight over - and Ilanor narrowly surviving - the party moved back to their resting room for a long break.

After a long night’s rest, the party once again moved to explore the castle, first getting back to the location of their last fight and then exploring the room. They soon found there were two hallways, one most likely leading to a previously explored room. The party felt a chill surrounding them as they explored the other, and as they approached the next room, which appeared to be some kind of prison, they saw various spectres floating around. Immediately, they took a defensive position.

Sir Ludwig waited not a moment as the first spectre moved forward, and immediately cut it to pieces. An arrow from Chari guided by Seline’s mockery downed a second. Quickly, Ilanor and Felor explored the room and took defensive positions, deciding to wait for the enemy to come to them.

Indeed, some spectres soon appeared around the party. Seline lashes out with her sword, trailing some wisps as it swung through the hand, doing little damage as Ilanor initiated combat with another spectre. Yet another wisp appeared, descending on Seline, and she called a thunderclap, shocking the creatures. Still hidden, Chari lunged at a spectre and showed it the way to the afterlife in a single strike.

Ilanor somehow bumbled his way to killing a spectre, then turned around to watch Sir Ludwig destroy a spectre and wound a second in one fluid motion, after which Seline gracefully landed the killing blow.

(it was at this point that Ilanor started getting really annoyed)

Without seeing any enemies, the party carefully moved forward, exploring more of the prison, eventually noticing another spectre, floating through one of the cells. It didn’t seem to be very willing to leave its cell, and the party was blocked from entering by the cell’s bars, so they decided to wait outside, throwing what magic and ranged weaponry they could at the spectre. As the spectre moved to the adjacent cell, Ilanor bluntly pulled out the rusty irons, and Sir Ludwig charged in on his unicorn steed and chopped up the spectre right good. The party quickly noticed another spectre, also hiding in the cells, and set to breaking this cell door as well, but then Seline scared the spectre away.

Satisfied with the results, the party moved through the corridor to the west, where Felor promptly triggered a trap and got stuck under a spiked device falling from the ceiling.

Slowly, the party inched towards Felor. After some discussion, Chari poked him with a crowbar, proving he was still alive. Ilanor stepped forward and tried to lift up the trap, but his strength escaped him and he let it fall onto Felor, injuring him further. Next, Chari tried, and managed to lift it off of him, but gave Felor yet another scratch, and Ilanor pulled him out.

With the trap out of the way, the party continued and soon found themselves in a room they had explored before. They decided to march straight ahead, into another corridor they had not previously explored. After confirming there were no traps in the hallway, they entered it and soon found themselves in front of a simple wooden door that seemed to have no special characteristics – just a handle, a keyhole, and no traps. Through the keyhole, they noticed stairs going down, and after some discussion about going upstairs – where Zargothorax most likely resided – they decided to first explore the corridor beyond the door further.

That corridor was the source of some kind of unnatural cold, but they decided to go down anyway, and soon found themselves in what appeared to be a prison. Seline insisted on checking the prisons, and as she entered a room, she felt completely cold and her hairs stood up straight. Suddenly, some kind of shade appeared, which struck forward, and it’s attack weakened her.

Sir Ludwig charged forward with his Laughing Longsword and delivered a glancing blow to it, and an arrow from Chari killed the abomination. As it died, it disappeared as if on a gust of wind, and the prison started trembling, and suddenly all doors broke open, shades appearing in every cell. Strange noises pierced through the air and goosebumps appeared on each member’s arms.

Ilanor wasted no time and moved forward, killing the nearest shade in two strikes. The shades moved forward, and one of them struck Felor with another weakening strike, but he rebuked the attack, and Chari’s reactive arrow killed it. She was immediately assaulted by another shade, however, and buckled under it’s strike, while yet another shade attacked Ilanor. Sir Ludwig charged back out from the cell they’d found the first shade in, and killed the creature attacking Chari, and Felor dodged an attack from another shade. Ilanor, however, was not so lucky as he was struck again.

Seline inspired the party with her beautiful music (it was The Raven Child, for the record) and whispered a discordant melody to one of the shades, causing it to run away, though it received another blow from Felor for it, after which he used his words of healing to sustain the party.

Ilanor delivered a sweeping strike, and his sword glowed with a bright light, completely disintegrating both shades the blade hit. Again, he struck, and he wounded a third just as Chari struck a fourth with her rapier. Sir Ludwig charged through the fight and ended both of the creatures. At that moment, the shade that had been scared away by Seline returned and attacked Sir Ludwig, only to be struck down by Felor immediately after.

With many members feeling weak after the strikes by the shades, they decided to take a short break to regain their strength. After the rest, they moved towards the nearest stairway up.---They started exploring the next floor by going west, and soon found themselves into some kind of circular ritual room. In the dim light, the party noticed a column that went all the way up to the high ceiling. As they carefully entered the room, fires lit all over the walls of the room.

Felor stepped forward, and suddenly a vampire swept down and grabbed him and broke its teeth trying to bite through his plate. Seline once again inspired the party (this time she played Sweet True Lies) and kindly told the vampire to eff off from Felor, upon which it scrambled to the wall and climbed up towards the roof.

Soon, however, it jumped down again, but Felor’s ready counterattack stopped it from being able to hit him. Sir Ludwig, Chari and Ilanor battered it with attacks, but it survived through all of them.A second vampire suddenly swept in, but failed to hug Seline twice. She simply scared the it into running away. Felor once again attacked the vampire close to him, but that vampire changed targets and hugged Ilanor tight. Sir Ludwig struck a powerful blow, imbued by radiant power, which was finally enough to down the creature.

The party quickly took a defensive stance, waiting for the other vampire to return, and as it did Ilanor and Chari immediately struck it before it attached itself to Ilanor. Felor struck the vampire with a guiding bolt, and Sir Ludwig charged in to kill it with two more radiant strikes.

The party went to explore the room further, when a vampire spawn jumped down from the ceiling and grappled Ilanor. Felor immediately shot a guiding bolt of light to the vampire as it began feasting on Ilanor.

Seline inspired the party with her beautiful music (a perfect rendition of Keeper of the Seven Keys) and attempted to scare the vampire with discordant whispered, which was ineffective but did allow Chari to shoot an arrow through it’s head, which in turn allowed Ilanor to free himself and deliver some more blows. Sir Ludwig charged in and delivered several glancing strikes himself, after which Felor charged in to finish the creature off.

With all monsters definitely cleared, the party turns their attention to the pillar in the middle of the room. After some very thorough inspection which leads to absolutely nothing, Seline attempts to climb the pillar, but after getting some ten feet up decides it’s not worth it and slides down again.

Next, the party moved back out of the room towards the south, towards a prison or prison-like room. The room contained a lot of doors, and after some discussion Chari moved towards the closest door and picked the lock. Sir Ludwig opened the door to reveal a wisp, then immediately closed the door again.

Chari moved on to the next door and just as Ilanor opened it, the wisp appeared behind Felor and attacked it, which immediately got rebuked. Ilanor moved forward and hacked away at the ball of light, and it danced in between his and Felor’s strikes, then Sir Ludwig charged in and completely obliterated the wisp in a single strike.Chari moved on to the next door and picked it’s lock, narrowly avoiding a poisoned needle shooting out of it. Carefully, she picked it up and put it in her backpack. Sir Ludwig entered the room to find a corpse, on which he found a strange, unidentified ring.

Ilanor encountered another wisp, which got killed in a single shot by Chari. In the next room they opened, they found a chest with a mathematical challenge as lock. After solving the puzzle, the chest opened to reveal eight blueish potions. Chari picked up a bottle and opened it, then carefully smelled it, discovering it had a sweet odor. Then, she does the most imprudent thing possible and tastes some, but luckily it just tastes ‘good’.

She then decides to down the entire thing. As soon as she finishes drinking it, she feels a tingling throughout her body and notices she suddenly moves faster. She gathers the other potions and suddenly the potion runs out and she drops to the ground, exhausted. A minute later, she is recovered.

The party opens a number other empty rooms, until eventually coming across another chest, this one with a riddle, quickly solved by the party. The chest opened to reveal a set of red potions. Again, Chari smelled it, then tasted it, finding it slightly spicy. She drinks it and finds herself surrounded by cold, wispy blue flames. Felor moves close to try and touch the flames – after they do nothing to Chari – but finds it is likely imprudent to touch them.

After the potions have been divided, the party finds he flames are still holding around Chari, and come to the conclusion this is likely a spell that lasts long. With all rooms explored, the party moves on to the east, and after some walking encounters two mummies and a wraith.

Felor cast turn undead, frightening two of the creatures and summoned the Mighty Dolphin Hammer, and Sir Ludwig charged forward to the last mummy, delivering several hits. Chari snuck up and shot the mummy with an arrow, and Ilanor charged forward, killed the mummy, then charged on to the other one – the wraith had disappeared into the wall.

Seline mocked the mummy for wearing toilet paper as clothes, and Felor charged forward, battering the abomination with two hammers, followed by Sir Ludwig’s hits. The mummy glared at Ilanor, who was not impressed and cut its head off.

With the wraith fleeing, the party is about to leave the room when Felor notices a face on the wall, which starts speaking upon being touched, giving another riddle, which was eventually solved by Sir Ludwig.

The face laughed, then the wall parted, showing another corridor. However, the party first went back to a previous room to take a long rest.